Selkie 647

When noodling over this scene I had the idea in my head to have Anthony discuss some sort of color-based communication system they had worked out with Felix. Something like directing him to do different tricks with different colors of light, maybe even communicate Felix's emotive states. Ultimately I axed it because I didn't want to sidetrack things too much, plus I think it felt a bit too far towards fantasy-fiction.

Of all the groups I have heard of throughout time — all the fraternities and sororities, the unions and guilds, the regular get-togethers, all of it — the one group I would choose to be a part of would be those Inklings.

Sitting down regularly with friends, not to play games or chit-chat but to discuss the deep thoughts and writings of a group of highly skilled, philosophical, creative, and mature people… I cannot think of a more engaging conversation.

Closest I’ve ever come was being part of The Sugar Quill, back before the last two or three Harry Potters came out. Going over the details of the existing books, hunting for clues and arguing endlessly over their meaning, seeing people tie together hints I had never even noticed were related… it was one of the best times of my life.

When a teen girls gets pregnant, it’s hard. VERY hard. Despite all of the magazines saying women don’t need men to raise a child, when you’re underage, don’t have even a high school diploma, have a parental system that’s overbearing, and no good prospects for a career at that time, it can be overwhelming beyond words.

And then, after the lie, how can you face the father? Every time you see the hurt in his eyes, it must rip your soul apart. You’re afraid because you’ve lied, you’re torn up because you gave away your own child, you feel like a total failure, and you can’t even confide in the person who you most should. And then it snowballs and works into a self-perpetuating cycle that eventually feeds on itself. 8 years later, you’re in a much better place and learn that your child has never had a parent. She’s been in an orphanage most of her life, and you feel the guilt crashing down on you. You want to make it right, even though your parents still disapprove. But you’re trying. Trying hard.

Andi isn’t a strong person. But she’s trying. She’s still a mess, just like Rens said, and she has a long way to go.

Eight years. She lied that their baby died,she gave him wood ashes and said they were their baby’s remains. Then tried to hit on him when she confessed that she lied. Andi is disgusting.

Hell she probably didn’t want to adopt because she wanted to keep up her lie. Heck she insulted his entire family to keep it up! Andi is a manipulative monster. People need to understand that she isn’t innocent at all.

Andi is neither an innocent, nor a monster. She is a fallible human being like most of the rest of us on this planet. Such eagerness to condemn is… well, it’s part of being human, too, I suppose, but not one of the good parts.

I wouldn’t lie for 8 YEARS about whether or not the child I had was DEAD. THEN BADMOUTH MY PARTNER’S FAMILY. That’s DISGUSTING AND WRONG. Nor would I give them fake remains and made them unnecessarily mourn the loss of a child who isn’t dead.

What human being would do that kind of thing? That is seriously disgusting!

What if it was a lie someone else forced on you by a parent? What if the ashes and the funeral were products of Andi’s mom? I really, really, really hope Andi’s mom turns out to be the main source of it. If not, I have to agree with you. It’s really hard to sympathize with a character/person who betrays on such an extreme level.

But haven’t we been shown the flashbacks? I mean, it’s true that someone might be an unreliable narrator, but I would hope our esteemed host-artist would have foreshadowed the unreliability of flashbacks before that.

The “not with us anymore” does sound like Andi either came up with the “died” part herself, or was trying to work around to the adoption part and Todd jumped to a (logical) conclusion and Andi went with it. (Though http://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie193/ — looks like Andi panicked and went with dead, yeah.)

(And, though this is cheating, scroll down on 193 to see our Esteemed Artist saying, […] if you are asking about the woman convincing Andi to adopt out, it is indeed her mother and not a social worker.)

At the least, Andi’s mother apparently did not do much convincing of her to come clean. The discussion in 588-590 has none of her telling Andi that the lie was a mistake.

Glad that the reactions are kinda subdued now. This feels better than if they were shouting at each other like in a sitcom. Dave, you write a good story with relatable characters and I frequently marvel at just how well you do it. Proves that art is not by any means the most important part of a webcomic (and you’re improving your art all the time anyway… wonder how good it’s going to look in two or three years?).

I don’t believe Andi is “standing near Todd”. She is standing next to her daughter, for when the “Luke, I am your father. Your mother lied to me and said you were dead” scene goes down, and Amanda collapses in shock.

Glad to see Todd stopped before things went REALLY downhill. He seems to be taking the unintended advice that there will need to be some sort of future between him and Andi, too. Though Andi’d damn well better not get her hopes up. Romance between them is OVER.

I also like the Di’Madia’s expressions here. Whether or not the doctor knows about the Sarnothi – he’s in a position where I wouldn’t be surprised if he did – he’s certainly giving them hope for the future.

My thoughts exactly. As angry as Todd is (and he has a right to be) things work out better between parents with a child/children from a broken relationship if they can at least be civil to one another. If both parents talk down about the other parent to the child, tensions will ensue and the last thing they need is MORE tension.

Does anyone else think that Selkie would get along great with Squid Girl?

Also, as a redhead myself, I’d think Amanda would be more used to comments like that. Though I wasn’t often called a ginger until recent years, I was mostly called a carrot-top, among other things. Still though by age eight myself, getting comments like that were pretty much the norm for me.

I never heard anything negative about redheads until I was an adult I think. Which is probably due to homeschooling, which made for fewer interactions with children my age and, to my recollection, no teasing/ridicule that wasn’t from my own family (mostly teasing, some ridicule, especially about my singing).

Then I get to college, and watching lots of shows and stuff, and somewhere along the way I got the understanding that a lot of people tease redheads and say they have no souls and such.

I don’t know where this started and it doesn’t make much sense. Especially because, as I understand it, redhead is short for spitfire personality, energetic and strong-willed, at least in fiction — and that’s kind of like the opposite of dispirited.

Always thought redheads were hot and felt like the sentiment was mutual. First time I heard of gingers being seen as something negative was a south park episode parodying the ginger thing, and it wasn’t until later that I found it’s a “thing” and not just something random they did for a joke.

French person here ! I’ve heard the “soulless” insult a couple of time. Here (at least), it seems to come from the fact that people believed red hair came from the person being “kissed by Hell’s flames” (i.e the Devil himself) and having their soul removed by it. That’s why in France, witches used to be red-headed.

I’m talking about medieval superstition, of course, but the tease stuck for a while.

Also, first time commentator, but long-time reader, as many. Dave, I love what you’ve done of this story, it’s really great. I’ve shown your comic to a couple of friends too 🙂

Maybe there is a relationship between the French superstitions about redheads and the legend of a demon countess among the ancestors of the Counts of Anjou. Geoffrey of Anjou, his son Henry II King of England, and many of Henry’s descendants were redheaded – and also fit the stereotypes of redheads as forceful and passionate with anger management issues. Of course, being raised as absolute rulers-to-be might have contributed to those characteristics…

I doubt medieval witch-hunts are related to the scarcity of red hair. Red hair is genetically recessive, so it can only occur if both parents are a carrier, and if the kid wins the genetic lottery to grab both recessive genes.

Todd is a carrier. Blonde is dominant over red for hair color, so he carries the recessive gene for red hair but does not outwardly display it. Andi and Amanda both got double recessive genes, so they both have red hair.

Dunno the genetics of it…nobody ever had red hair in my family till I was born…then my younger brother had it…then it started turning up among maternal cousins. It’s been the topic of much speculation over the years.

Oh, that’s easy. Standard simple genetic math. No need for “actually, human genes are more complicated than peapods,” although they are. Andi has the double recessive gene and so she has red hair. Todd has one red-hair gene and one brown-hair gene. Since red is recessive, he does not have red hair.

Amanda inherited one red gene from her mother and, 50% chance, another one from her father, so she DOES have red hair. No mystery about it at all.

Yeah, when I was growing up, “Ginger” was just the movie star on Gilligan’s Island. Heard Carrot Top a lot though. Also, random adults seemed to think that red hair was public domain and felt free to touch it. Ugh! No touchee!

I don’t think anti-red head prejudice is much of a thing here in the US, least not like in say the UK.

Now I know that redheads get a hard time over across the pond, with tabloids having stories about “celebrities who are secretly ginger” and what not. I can’t claim to be an expert but I suspect that came out of anti-Irish sentiments.

As for the “redheads having no souls” thing I think that might have come from the belief that Judas Iscariot was a redhead, and that redheads are destined to rise as vampires when they die (as Judas Iscariot supposedly did), there were similar myths about redheads being witches or werewolves, I’ve heard.

That I suppose probably came from the sad human habit to demonize anyone who is ‘other,” and red is the rarest hair color.

Not gonna lie, I thought the aquarium was a bit of an odd venue to stage one of the most anticipated and dramatic moments of the comic — but that being said, I loved this moment. You really nailed the speech, and I’ll forever be in awe of how we get to know so much about these minor characters in ways that never take the spotlight away from the main cast. I feel like I’ve said this before, but the storytelling in this comic deserves so much praise. Not just the story itself – which is of course fantastic – but the way it’s told, which is always with care and thought. Love it!

Oh octopus man. Thank you for your (unintended) voice of reason. Regardless of what Andi did, she is Amanda’s mother. And if Todd wants to be part of Amanda’s life, he’s going to have to come to terms with that and be civil. Nothing can fuck a kid up more than one parent hating the other.

You know, in some cases I could think the Sarnothi could pretend they are LARPers or Cosplayers. People get dressed in complicated and detailed costumes for less. Outside of this comic, after the initial, split second shock, I probably would have shrugged them off as people who REALLY get into ocean stuff or a comic book I hadn’t read.

I can just see some busybody taking great offense at how they dressed up a “five-year-old” (I’m horrible at judging ages) with makeup that close to the eyes, and grabbing him and trying to wash it or at least rub it off… and finding out that it doesn’t rub off.

And possibly being bitten for her trouble.

Also, being outraged at the makeup presupposes that she didn’t get a good look at their teeth, or she’d be even *more* outraged. The idea of sharpening a kid’s teeth is even worse than cropping a puppy’s ears or piercing a baby’s ears. And I have a special internal fury for the type of people who pierce a baby’s ears, because what kind of self-centered ass wants to play dress-up with their own baby to the extent that they will deliberately inflict pain on their child because it makes them look so cute afterwards?

The only reasoning I heard was that as a large majority of girls will later want their ears pierced, if it is done to an infant they will not later remember the pain and it is easier to keep the earrings clean and heal well. I think I also read somewhere about it being cultural in some communities.

That said, I also do not agree with it…I did not WANT my ears pierced until I was 8, personally.

I’ve never wanted my ears pierced. I’ve occasionally worn clip-ons but am more partial to those twisted silver wires that twine around the top and side of the ear without actually piercing it or anything.

But c’mon, the idea that “everybody wants it” not only doesn’t make sense but is a self-fulfilling prophecy (“I’ve got pierced ears already, might as well enjoy them” => “look, all those girls have pierced ears, might as well pierce my kid too”).

You know those gauges that are becoming popular these days — making bigger and bigger holes in the ears until you could stick a quarter through them? What if that became common for girls, so parents started gauging their babies’ ears in anticipation of their kids wanting it?

A kid or teen can go “Okay, I can put up with this pain for the purpose of a new way to enjoy my body.” This is something we, as rational creatures, can do. And it’s no more lasting than it is for a baby. But for the baby, they don’t in the least understand WHY they’re getting hurt, they just know PAIN.

Because basically every American woman, with only few exceptions, eventually gets it done. May as well do it when they’re a kid.

Personally I think it’s not a big deal. Have you seen the piercings done in *other* cultures? There is some hardcore shit out there. We’re small change by comparison. Just a tiny gauge through the earlobe.

I agree with you, but not to that extent. I think it’s a choice the child should make later on, personally. All said and done, though? It’s just a little pinch. I would be more worried about them taking the earrings out and eating them than about the initial pain.

From personal experience, getting ears pierced very early means the child does not mess with it, get an infection, does not mess with the earrings at all, and they heal and are there for life and the — usually– girl won’t be teased abut not having her ears pierced later on nor go through the process later. Who knows if your child will be a scab-picker or allergic to gold. Anyway, side tangent experience.

If it’s just a little pinch, there’s no reason to worry about how the kid will feel when they’re old enough to choose for themselves.

Hurting a baby for the sake of potentially avoiding teasing later on is questionable at best. And, as I mention above, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in which everyone has pierced ears because parents think everyone has pierced ears, and kids have it happen before they’re old enough to choose for themselves.

I’d say if the kid is young enough that they’re going to pick at the wound, they are too young to be getting that piercing. Though, to be fair, a college classmate got a navel piercing and ignored her doctor’s advice, went in a hot tub with us, and ended up in the hospital with a bad infection. So it’s by no means a kids-only behavior, but as you get older at least you can take responsibility for the consequences.

You know, many other piercings are getting common these days. I mentioned gauges above, but what about eyebrow piercings, tongue piercings, lip piercings, nose piercings? How many people does it take for one of these to become so common that parents do it to their children as well? Some piercings are literally capable of causing permanent nerve damage.

I totally agree. It’s really not that big of a deal to get pierced as an adult. A baby will not understand why she is being pierced—nor will she care. Despite what most fools think, babies are actually *more* sensitive to pain than adults. Also, piercing guns are f’n gross and cause scarring. Much better to have a pro do it with a hollow needle.

Actually, as someone who had her ears pierced as a baby and then opted for a second set when I was an adult… I was really glad my mother opted to do the first set when I was a baby. It wasn’t the pain itself, it was trying not to touch or pick at them, keeping them clean… ugh! If I’d gotten both sets done as an adult I’d probably still have just the one! Thank you, Mom, you did me a favor!

I think Todd’s reaction toward Andi, while understandable, was quite unwarranted. When she was pregnant, he (no doubt unwittingly) made her feel pressured rather than supported, and from what we could see, he both failed to address her realistic concerns for the future and grief over any possible course of action, and failed to take responsibility for putting her into that situation. I’m hoping his folks set him straight, and I’d like to see the ‘growth opportunities’ of both Todd reconciling with Andi and Selkie and Amanda learning to be sisters.

Where do you get that? Prior flashbacks show his plans to support her, and indicate she was hiding from him how unhappy she was. How was he failing to take responsibility when he was literally working on taking responsibility and being there to support the baby? How is it unwarranted to be furious that she proceeded to lie to him and give him the horrible grief of losing a child? To take from him his right to the baby? To cause that same pain to his family? To go to lengths to perpetrate the lie (the ashes, the urn).

His folks aren’t going to “set him straight”. Even if you take into account Andi’s fears and the pressure from her mother, this was not just cruel, but ILLEGAL. Fathers do have rights, even unmarried ones, to their children in regards to adoption.

She had the choice to give up her own rights, but she had no right to make that decision for him.

I’m with leoness here. And with everything I’ve seen so far, it seems like Andi’s attempts to hide her true feelings are a defense mechanism from the environment she grew up in, so I don’t think it’s Todd’s fault that he failed to clue in to her reality.

Unfortunately, men very rarely have rights to a child unless the mother acknowledges the father. that’s most likely HOW Andi was able to be pressured into giving Amanda Marie up. The impression the flashback gave me was that Mrs. McClellen, however unwittingly, used the fact that Todd was held up from being right there to convince Andi that he ran, and to not acknowledge Amanda Marie’s father, thus easing the ability to give her to the State for adoption.

He was what? 17. He seemed to be realistically acting like a 17 year old boy who had no idea of what was going on with the world. What he did was very small and pretty normal for his age—possibly even more mature than most 17 year old boys as he was there for her. His obliviousness also seems to be a bit of a character trait, too, given how he misread Mina. Andi, however, had a huge, huge lie that created massive emotional grief for Todd and his family—well beyond what would have been if she was honest. If she was fully behind the funeral and urn, that takes it to an entirely different level of crazy lying. I’m hoping it was her mom, though.

This is a common comment on stories with certain fantasy elements, but the existence of certain fantasy elements isn’t sufficient justification for just throwing anything else into the mix.

And Selkie, as with many, is not a total makeover of reality where octopodes are far more intelligent than IRL, but an examination of what reality could be like if this one specific fantasy/sci-fi thing were happening. By necessity you stick to reality as closely as possible in the rest of the story, or the premise gets shot to Hell.

Is it wrong of me to want to take a set of scissors to Andi’s bangs? I applaud creativity (definitely she needs something interesting done if she changes it), but she’s been wearing this do’ since high school. Since she made such a huge confession perhaps she can move past other parts of her adolescence.

The thing I see about her hair is the fact that she’s a fictional character. Do anime characters or cartoon characters think ‘that person has whacky hair/outfits/what have you, they’re obviously irresponsible and not grown up’?

She’s fictional. So many of the characters have normal hair, long hair, hair in a ponytail or ponytails, shoulder-length hair, etc. The way I see it, her hair shows that she’s different. She’s not a cookie-cutter designed character. In real life, her hairdo would definitely stick out and probably get some jests about being a literal carrot not just a carrot top, but for a fictional setting I just see it as a design and nothing more.

Besides, I know plenty of people who have unique hairstyles, some who dye their hair as well, and they don’t act any less adult then anyone else.

I think we analyze her a little differently because this is a story set in a modern realism, where the other characters generally don’t have hair that’s all that crazy. So we’re analyzing it as a mildly stylized version of hair that could be worn in the real world, and making assumptions based on what we think that hairstyle would mean in the real world.

Mayhap, but I know three adult women, two of them mothers, who have either dyed their hair in the past (one “the color that mermaids dream in,” to quote a comment on her blog), or are continuing to do so occasionally now.

I plan to start dying mine in indigos when it finally goes white enough not to clash. >:)